How I Cope With Depression

A lot of people have depression (including me) and sometimes, it can be hard to handle. Especially while trying to go on with daily life. Some of you may already do these things to help you cope. This is just a small list of things that I do to help me kinda make it through my bad days.

1.Relationship

So this is my top one honestly. My girlfriend is my biggest support system. She knows me better than anybody and accepts me no matter what crazy things I experiment with to try to figure out who I am. Whenever I’m struggling she’s always able to tell, even if I try to lie and say that I’m okay. She knows that I’m not. I’ve cried while she held me (although I really hated her seeing me like that), but she didn’t rush it. When I tried to force myself to stop crying and be strong she just pushed my hands from my face and told me that it needed to happen eventually. I love her more than anything and I couldn’t imagine losing her, or replacing her for anyone or anything. She is my number one coping style even though we aren’t together all the time.

2.Music

Music is another top of mine. Mostly because I’m constantly listening to it. Seriously I don’t go more than like an hour without listening to music unless I’m at work, and I can’t. Depending on how bad my depression is at a certain time, I may choose to listen to my “sad playlist, which mostly includes my post-hardcore bands: Sleeping With Sirens, Pierce The Veil, Flyleaf(before Lindsey left), Bring Me The Horizon, Dance Gavin Dance etc. I try not to do this as much as I used to because…. Umm how do I put it…. It’s not that it makes my mood worse, but it doesn’t exactly make me feel better either ya feel? Like it kinda mutes the depression, but then I just feel numb and emotionless, but also kinda like my soul is screaming. I’m not sure that made much sense so let’s continue. But if my depression isn’t that bad normally I listen to my other artists: Drake, Alessia Cara, Jeremih, Rihanna, Phora, Cam Meekins etc. So if you’re a music head like I am then music should be one of your go to coping mechanisms.

3.Drawing

Okay so this one personally actually didn’t work for me, actually it made it worse. But that was just a bad day and drawing lines on me in red probably was not the best idea in the world. So I probably walked right into the problems that came with that one. But my friends even if they aren’t artists find drawing on their arms or thighs to be pretty therapeutic in a way. Most of the time they don’t really plan for it to turn into anything but it kinda ends up looking pretty cool. I however can’t draw, like to save my life. (Literally even my stick figures look pretty fucked up). But for some that doesn’t really matter. If you think it’d help, do you bro.

4.Write it Out

This is more my speed. Sometimes it’ll turn out as a poem, others it’s just a bunch of random words on my page. Either way it helps a little. Usually the poems I write while in that mood are super depressing. But after I finish them I feel my mood lift a little. Like putting them on paper is taking the emotions out of me. I don’t write as often as I used to, partly because my journal ripped, and I just have yet to get another one.

If you guys have any others that you can think of, feel free to put em in the comments. I’d love to here from you guys.